She heard him before she saw him. This reckless bastard...

Valentina stepped to the side and caught the flying boy by his leg, before he went headfirst into the enemy. The sudden stop in momentum threw him to the ground but, this time, he was prepared and moved into a roll instead of smashing his nose. His voice was cheerful when he spoke up.

“Let’s get this party started” said Albert standing next to Valentina.

“What the hell are you doing here? How did you even use Lightning Steps again?” she asked.

“Well, someone has to keep an eye on you, right? If I let you be, all of these people are pretty much goners.” he answered trying to provoke her. “Besides all I had to do was touch you, right?”

She faintly remembered his hand resting on her shoulder when he said his goodbye.

“Don’t steal my powers without permission!” said Valentina shoving him to the side.

“Think of it as borrowing. You have enough, you gotta share with the lower classes” he retorted. She didn’t seem convinced, but they had bigger problems at the moment.

In front of them was a group of 10 people. They didn’t know anyone in it, but they all had the same glazed eyes as the attacker from the woods. No one spoke, they all just surrounded the exit and stared at Albert and Valentina.

“Who are you, why are you here?” shouted Valentina, fishing for answers. But there was no response.

“Ok. This is weird. Do you think they all got powers too?” asked Albert.

“I’d assume so...” she answered, unsure.

“What’s your plan then?”

Valentina didn’t have an answer for that yet, but for some reason the enemies were not attacking, so she starting thinking.

Albert interpreted her silence, assuming correctly.

“You never had a plan, did you? God dammit I can’t believe I’m betting my neck on you.” he said hitting himself on the face.

But her gears were turning at full throttle and as she looked around, at the lights and the wooden archways, an idea starting forming in her head.

“I got it! Get close to me Roth, we got to get you ready.” Valentina commanded. Albert, who was starting to get tired of people ordering him around asked:

“What? What are you thinking now?”

She puffed angrily and walked up to him. His eyes widened as she whispered the plan into his ears.

“Are you sure?” Albert asked.

“I think it’s our best option. I can’t fight them all AND keep them from going after the others.” Valentina said confidently. Her arm purposely rested in his shoulder and he felt the burning sensation once again. “Concentrate. Like I taught you.”

They stood there for two minutes until finally one of their opponents made a move. Matter of fact they all moved, at the same time. Their mouths opened and they all said:

“Roger!” the sound echoed through the tunnel in their monotone, yet dissonant, voices. The men and women of the pack took a battle stance and prepared to pounce. They all had a red-yellowish Ruach around their arms, just like the other one they had fought.

“Ready? I take left you take right.” said Valentina just before everyone attacked. They both jumped back to opposite sides of the tunnel. The opponents split up and followed suit.

7 of them went for Valentina while the other 3 went after Albert. She fought them off skillfully, without throwing any blows while letting them hit each other and the surroundings. Meanwhile Albert went on a frantic run with his pursuers. They were both retreating, next to the walls and into the tunnel more and more.

Unlike Valentina, Albert did not have the skill to make the opponents do what he wanted. And even if he did, he was too concentrated on his newfound abilities to do anything else. Echoes of her explanation traveled through his brain as he avoided the soaring punches. Keep the Ruach in your stomach, that will spread it across your whole body and enhance its functions. Don’t try any funny moves, if you fuck it up you can unbalance yourself, and that, can get you killed.

They moved 200 meters into the tunnel before Valentina shouted:

“NOW!”

She jumped over the enemies launching herself at Albert, he caught her midair and concentrated all of his Ruach on his feet. With Valentina holding onto him, he used the Lightning Steps to dodge his 3 opponents and fly back towards the entrance. They moved right next to the walls on Albert’s side of the battle and for every wooden archway they passed you could hear a loud sonicboom. They arrived back to the bottom of the stairs, leaving a path of destruction behind.

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On Albert’s side you could see a straight line where Valentina smashed the columns that held up the tunnel, while on Valentina’s side everything was broken at different heights and manners by the blows of her enemies. Either way, the support system for those 200 meters of the passage was gone.

The zombie-like, men and women tried to run back to them but it was too late.

“Stand back” Valentina told Albert.

With a deep breath she gathered all of her power. Her yellow aura intensified and started to emanate from her like wild flames. When she concentrated the energy, her foot shone bright like a miniature sun. She couldn’t help but let out a scream as she powerfully stomped the floor.

“HAAAAAAA!” her foot made a dent on the stoned floor, and the cracks traveled up to the walls. Some of the stones around her started to melt, but the damage was already done. The walls were already rumbling and the tunnel started to cave in.

Once the first rocks fell, the rest started to collapse very quickly. Albert shouted to Valentina:

“Come! Quick!”

She went to him as fast as possible, since the walls around them were going down too. Albert put his hands around her and jumped out of the tunnel, only to realize they had made a big miscalculation.

The cabin was collapsing too.

“Shit” he said, when he landed on the kitchen floor and it started sinking too. The roof of the house was also coming down and Albert used his only skill, Lightning Steps, to dodge the beams and slabs at a dizzying speed. But that could only keep them safe for so long.

He decided to dash to a window to escape the collapsing house, but remembered, too late, that they were sealed with wooden planks.

They both flew head first into the planks, smashing through the window and rolling onto the pile of rubble.

Albert felt very relaxed. He sat on a hammock watching the sunrise with the soft breeze caressing his face. The entire world seemed respectfully quiet, with only the occasional bird breaking the silence. They sang beautiful notes, contributing to the atmosphere.

There was, however, one woodpecker that was really annoying. From time to time Albert heard an infuriating TOC TOC TOC coming from behind him. If this bird disturbs me one more time, I swear to god… he thought. But this time the sound didn’t come. Instead he felt an impact on his face, followed by the taste of blood in his mouth.

He woke up suddenly to the rock hitting him. The warm morning sun was already on his body, and some birds were surrounding him, checking the wreckage. Albert was laying on the edge of a crater that definitely wasn’t there before.

It looked like the earth had tried to devour the cabin, leaving only a pile of demolished logs and furniture behind.

A couple of meters down the crater was another person, she stared at him with an angry face.

“Finally!” said Valentina exasperated. “Get down here and help me, quick!”

Albert stood up, his mind still a bit sluggish as he calmly stumbled down to her. And it was only when he got close, that he realized how serious the situation was.

“Holy shit” he exclaimed running to her side. Valentina had both of her legs stuck under a beam and a pile of debris.

“Yeah. Great landing!” she said sarcastically. “I can’t push it out myself, I got no support. You got to get me out of here my body can’t take much more of the enhancement.”

Albert noticed her eyes were still shining and her face stoically tried to hide the pain.

“Ok, how do we do this?”

“Take my Ruach. It’ll give you the strength you need.” Albert came close to her, and she touched his foot. He held onto the wooden beam, ready. “Just keep your arms firm and focus the energy on your legs. You have to push it up, like a weightlifter, with your whole body.”

He crouched and followed her instructions. As he lifted, the weight felt crushing on his torso and arms, but his legs resisted, so he just took the pain. When her body was set free, Valentina crawled out of the space and laid down, exhausted.

Albert heard her pitiful scream before he could turn around.

Valentina had tears in her eyes and held onto her leg, in pain.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck” she kept repeating to herself.

“What’s wrong?” asked Albert in a desperate tone.

“It’s the kickback! Oh, god. Fucking hell!” her pleading continued. Albert felt completely helpless while watching her suffering, so he sat beside her to hold her hand.

Even without her powers, Valentina grabbed his hand with an iron grip trying to push away the pain. After a few minutes her breath started to stabilize and relief spread across her sweaty face.

“Is it over?” asked Albert. She nodded her head and he sighed in relief.

Albert finally sat back and let himself relax for a second. Even in that thick forest, the morning sun managed to sneak some light in, finally allowing him to see the damage.

It seemed like the plan had worked, despite the demolished house. They had actually taken down a part of the forest by sinking down 200 meters worth of tunnels, but, apparently, the rest didn’t collapse, so their friends were safe.

“How did you know the tunnel wasn’t going to collapse on Linus and the others?” asked Albert.

“I didn’t. But I remembered the day I accidentally found this tunnel. It was still under construction and I was caught by one of our instructors down there. He told me it was almost completed. I just hoped they were already on the other side. Wherever that is.” she explained, pausing to breathe every other sentence.

“You’re reckless” he said.

“So are you.” answered Valentina.

They watched in silence the birds go about their morning, hard working as ever. When Albert felt he was finally fully awake he said:

“Let’s go get some cover, we don’t know if there’s still someone here.”

Valentina just nodded. He got up and put his arms under her legs and back, lifting her up like a princess. For a second she was about to protest but her fatigue spoke louder and she rested her head on his shoulder, eyes closed, as he carried her out of the crater.

This was the first time Albert had a chance to truly look at her. In his arms, her tiny body felt as light as a feather, and her resting face had very soft features. Still it felt like she was born to fight. Through the rips in her white shirt you could see her toned abdomen contracting and relaxing with her breathing, her strong petite figure. Even her hair, when glistening with sweat, made her look more beautiful.

“Stop staring” she said without opening her eyes. Albert was caught off guard by her comment and flinched, giving himself away.

“I… I wasn’t...” but he gave up knowing he had been caught.

They walked away from the cabin and back into the woods. looking for a place where they could rest. He found a clearing where the ground would descend a little and the roots could be used as shelter.

Albert laid Valentina down and sat next to her. She blinked very slowly struggling to hold her eyelids open.

“Thank you... for coming back for me.” she said, before falling asleep.